The present invention generally relates to projecting colors onto a surface, and particularly relates to compensating for the surface color when projecting colors onto the surface.
Selecting a new paint color can be frustrating and prone to error. New paint colors are typically chosen based on paint chip samples placed on a card. The chip samples are small and difficult to visualize on walls or in rooms. Also, a paint color chosen based on a chip sample often does not exactly match the original color of the chip sample. Another option for visualizing paint color is to purchase one or more small paint samples. However, this is a permanent option and cannot be undone once the paint has dried on a wall or other surface. Some paint vendors and retailers offer virtual paint samples on their websites for viewing. A user can select one or more paint colors and see how the selected colors look in different “virtual” rooms. The user can also provide a digital picture of a room and modify the paint color in the digital picture by selecting a different wall color.
These types of “virtual” and digital solutions depend on the color settings applied to the user's computer monitor or digital camera screen and can severely distort the paint color. Moreover, conventional “virtual” and digital paint solutions do not capture the actual lighting conditions within the room to be painted. The perceived color of paint can change drastically in different lighting conditions due to the absorptive/reflective characteristics of the pigments in paint. Accordingly, a color that appears appealing when displayed on-line or on a digital camera screen may be unacceptable when actually painted on a wall. In addition, viewing paint colors on-line or on a camera screen prevents the user from viewing the paint color on a larger surface. For example, viewing size is limited to the size of a computer monitor or even smaller when viewed on the display screen of a digital camera.